Okay, so I just finished replacing the stock fan with the Sunon Maglev. For me, I did this because I had built an HT/light gaming PC around a specific case that required a Flex ATX PSU. The Sunon is absolutely, unequivocally
much quieter. It's not silent, but the stock fan is so loud it was unpleasant to have the PC on. When gaming or watching something the volume had to be significantly turned up to drown out the noise of the PSU fan. None of this is true with the Sunon instatlled. Under normal use you really barely hear it. Under more intensive use, like gaming, you do, but it's no better nor worse than my PS4. Also, this might be wrong, but the PSU feels like it's running cooler than it did with the stock fan...
For those that don't really know what they're doing (as I didn't when I started this process): This is my little mini-guide to installing the Sunon Maglev. if you want to make this modification, you have two options.
The most straight forward one is to cut the ends of the wires from the stock fan that have the connector (leave yourself some length in case you fuck up), strip both wires as well as the wires of the new fan, twist them together and solder them, and finally cover the soldered connections with heat-shrink tubing. This is simple and cheap if you've got a soldering iron. If you don't, the alternative below will likely be cheaper and easier (if you don't have experience soldering this isn't the best project to learn on).
The more complicated but somewhat more elegant solution would be as follows:
First Google around or use eBay to search for and order the following things:
- Mini 2 Pin Female Fan Connector Housing 2.54mm Pitch (a pack of 5 was 99 cents on eBay)
- Female Crimp Pin Terminal 2.54mm Pitch 6 Pack (For Mini Fan Connector Housings) (Pack of 6 was 99 cents on ebay)
- Steel Pin Crimping Tool (something that goes up to 26 AWG) (This runs the gamut from $7 to $40 I picked one up for $13)
When you've got the fan, and all these parts, it's very simple to insert the wire ends into the pins, crimp them with the crimp tool, insert the pins into the connector housing. then attach that to the fan header in the power supply. Make sure you insert the wires the correct way into the housing (refer to their position with the stock fan's connector). If you fuck up for some reason, cut off the ends, strip the wires and try again with a new housing and pair of pins.
If you know of another PSU that you're confident is reasonably quiet, go with that one over the FX350-G. I've done a lot of research and every other Flex ATX PSU has reviews that complain about noise, (while a bunch that say there is very little noise). The same is true of the FX350-G. Ultimately, I read a lot of stuff that said basically all Flex ATX PSUs are loud. Given that fact, I wasn't really inclined to audition and return a bunch of other units. That said, I imagine it would be pretty straight forward to make this modification on any similar PSU.
So, that's my lesson to share with the group. Thanks everyone for your help, thoughts, information and perspective.